Combat and Classics is a series of podcasts and online seminars that explores the nature of man in conflict and cooperation through socratic dialogue and the great books. For more info visit 
Book 7 opens with a duel. The Greeks draw lots to fight Hector and (supposedly) end the war. Nine Greeks volunteer to fight and lots are drawn. Ajax wins the lottery and fights Hector. Ajax seems to be winning but the fighters make a truce and decide to take a day off to bury and honor the dead. Our opening question is: Who are the Greeks without Achilles? Some followup Continue Reading …
Combat & Classics Ep. 39: Thucydides Part I with Andrea Radasanu
Jeff and Brian are joined by Dr. Andrea Radasanu, Acting Director of the University Honors Program at Northern Illinois University, to discuss Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian War," specifically the Athenian plague and Pericles funeral oration. For more info on Andrea and NIU, click here: https://www.niu.edu/honors/about/staff.shtml Continue Reading …
Demagogue Lover: Aristophanes’s “Wasps” in the Age of Trump
Surely if liberalism has a single desperate weakness it is an inadequacy of imagination: liberalism is always being surprised. –Lionel Trilling In the winter of 422 BCE, the Athenian comedic playwright Aristophanes presented Wasps, the play about the most fundamental political problem of his time, and of ours—the problem of persuasion. The play asks how it might be possible to Continue Reading …